A review by danata
Witch Baby by Francesca Lia Block

I loved Witch Baby (and its whole series) in the 1990s. The underlying message of the book — that we have to make room for pain and for uncomfortable truths, and that people who are honest about that stuff often feel alone — still holds super strong, as do the meditations on immigration and homophobia and the weird things we do to ourselves to avoid pain. Like in the other books, the language is lyrical and fairytale-ish, and the city of Los Angeles is vivid as a character.

I’m an adult now though and learned the lessons in the book so well that the book feels obvious.

Also, as other reviewers have mentioned, there’s a large quantity of questionable racial/ethnic stuff (the repeatedly described as chocolate looking skin of the black characters, the headdresses and pow wow comments) and an aesthetic of, like, constantly mentioning “Guatemalan fabric,” someone looking like a “Gypsy” dancer, or wanting to be an African drummer, or putting a puppy into a papoose. I think in the 1990s this large collection of ethnic mentions was a kind of shorthand for openness or inclusion, but now it feels a little, I don’t know, United Colors of Benetton?

I would love to read a grown up version of this book. What would Witch Baby be doing in the 2020s?